Paul McCartney was only 16 when he wrote “A World Without Love.” The song would sit unfinished for several years before becoming a No. 1 hit, and it would not be the Beatles who recorded it.
Instead, the song launched 19-year-old Peter Asher and his singing partner, Gordon Waller, who performed together as Peter & Gordon.
Asher had a unique connection to McCartney even before the duo landed their recording deal. His sister, actress Jane Asher, was dating the Beatle, and McCartney moved into the Asher family’s London home in 1963.
McCartney had written the song before the Beatles became famous, and when he played it for John Lennon, Lennon wasn’t exactly impressed. Asher later recalled that Lennon particularly disliked the lyrics.
“I think it was the lyrics,” he told Fresh Air. “I think what John didn’t like about it was the lyrics, that he thought that ‘please lock me away’ was an absurd line to put in a song.” Asher said Lennon would essentially joke, “OK, I will lock you away. The song’s over.”
McCartney eventually offered the song to Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, but Kramer passed on it. That left the song available when Asher and Waller landed their own recording deal.
McCartney agreed to let the two record it, but there was one problem; the song didn’t have a bridge. Asher later recalled having to “nag” McCartney to finish the track, which he did just in time for Peter & Gordon’s first recording session on January 21, 1964.
“A World Without Love” was released on February 28 as Peter & Gordon’s debut single. It quickly became a sensation, reaching No. 1 in the U.K. and No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.
For Asher, the success was life-changing. As he later recalled, by 19 he had already had “a No. 1 hit on both sides of the Atlantic” with a song written by McCartney.
The friendship between Asher and McCartney continued even after McCartney and Jane broke up. “Paul and I had become good friends,” Asher said, recalling how McCartney continued to stay at the family’s home when the Beatles weren’t on the road.
That bond eventually helped shape Asher’s career beyond Peter & Gordon. After the duo split in 1968, Asher became head of A&R at Apple Records, where he signed a young, relatively unknown James Taylor. He later moved to Los Angeles, becoming Taylor’s manager and producer and working with Linda Ronstadt as both a manager and producer.
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